from scratch baking and cooking blog

Monthly Archives: August 2014

It’s that time of year when you have so much zucchini in the garden you don’t know what to do with it all. Here is a recipe that I tried to make slightly more heart healthy than the original from TOH. Once the cookies cool you cannot even tell there is zucchini “Hidden” inside. Which makes zucchini the secret ingredient.

It’s that time of year! We have zucchini coming out of our ears! This rain has sure helped! My previous boss gave me a zucchini cookbook from our hometown’s garden club. There are oodles of zucchini muffin recipes in the book. I found one of interest and made some modifications to lighten up the calories in these muffins! I made them for my sister and nephew for breakfast this weekend. I added raisins since that’s my nephews favorite snack and the only way I can get him to eat them.

We had a sleepover last night in our household after a night out on the town. I had to work early so I wanted to make sure my family had something to eat when they woke up! This recipe was adapted from one of my cookbooks and the original can be found on FN website.

This is so easy and the bonus is I used leftover heels of bread (about 8 ounces or 8 slices). I freeze them as I get to the end of the loaf and either use them for bread crumbs or breakfast casseroles.

My grandma gave me a bunch of old recipe cards a few years ago. Most of them were blank but one I stumbled across was a zucchini bar. I did modify the recipe to incorporate more heart healthy options.I am always looking for zucchini recipes because the garden is always producing more zucchini then one person can make. This is a flavorful spice bar with a added bonus fiber from the whole wheat flour and zucchini.

I have made zucchini cake before but it’s always been chocolate zucchini cake. This one is more like zucchini bread with frosting!

2. In a large bowl mix oil, sugar, vanilla, apple butter together then one egg at a time mixing after each addition.

3. Add dry mix to wet.

4. Fold in zucchini then nuts, and raisins.

Mix until everything is well blended.

Pour batter into baking sheet and evenly spread with spatula.

Bake for 15 to 20 minutes. If your zucchini is very moist you may need to bake 20 to 25 minutes. I strained my zucchini and the bars didn’t come out as moist as I would have hoped. Next time I will not remove the excess water. Use tooth pick method to test cake prior to removing from oven. If tooth pick comes out clean remove from oven.